Painting
by Sobeys
Summary: In preparation of the arrival of their new daughter, Michael and Sara, along with Lincoln, LJ and Michael Jr, set out to complete the task of painting the nursery. But of course, nothing can happen without a little trouble. One-shot. Family Fluff.


"BABY ON BOARD," LJ shouted, carrying a shrieking Mikey on his back as he raced into the half-painted room.

"Ditto." Sara replied, patting her rounded stomach as she dipper a roller in the lavender liquid.

"Which is why you should let me and Mike paint the baby's room," Lincoln said, gesturing towards Sara's protruding belly.

Sara sighed, annoyed. "Again, Lincoln? How many times are we going to have this argument before you understand that I'm pregnant, not made of glass?"

"Linc..." Michael started, his eyes widening in warning. Lately, Sara had been really short-tempered on account of being seven months pregnant and he was trying very, _very_ hard to do everything he could to keep her happy. Lincoln, on the other hand, seemed bent on ruining his plan, constantly challenging Sara's every decision. Sure, he was just doing it because he cared about Sara and the baby, but he had the luxury of coming and going as he pleased.

"I'm just saying. Let me and Michael take care of painting the room; you should take a break and relax. Besides, aren't paint fumes bad for the baby, right?"

Michael and LJ looked at each other, clearly thinking the same thing. _Now he's done it..._

Sara's eyes flashed in anger. "The paint is non-toxic," she said through gritted teeth. "For God's sake, Lincoln! I'm a doctor, I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize the health of my baby. I'm not stupid."

"I wasn't-"

"And in case you haven't noticed, I've been pregnant before," Sara snapped, looking pointedly at her son. "And the first one turned out just fine."

"I didn't mean to-"

"Whatever," Sara said, stomping out of the room. Mikey, who had been standing with LJ, looked at his uncle. "Uncle Linc, if you keep making mommy mad, she's gonna give you a time-out."

LJ grabbed his cousin's hand. "Mike, why don't we go play with your trucks?"

"YEAH!" Mikey said, running excitedly out of the room.

Michael leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. "Why do you do this to me, Linc?"

"I didn't mean to, honest. I just wanted her to take a break." Lincoln said, looking innocently at his brother.

Michael shook his head and then started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Lincoln asked.

"Damage control," Michael replied. "You can keep painting."

Lincoln shrugged, not about to argue. Painting was definitely the easier of the two jobs.

* * *

Sara sat on the edge of the bed, turning the pages of a magazine that she clearly wasn't paying attention too. The only thing on her mind was Lincoln and his big mouth. A small part of her knew she was overreacting but it was overshadowed by the hormonal part that wanted to rip her brother-in-law's head off.

"You okay?" Michael asked from the doorway.

Sara nodded, not saying a word.

Michael walked into the room and sat down behind her, stretching his legs out on either side of her. He started to rub her shoulders, gently massaging the kinks out. "Lincoln didn't mean to call you a bad mother. He just has this habit of sticking his foot in his mouth."

Sara nodded, a soft moan escaping her lips at the pleasant feeling of his hands working through her shoulders. "I know."

"He just wants you to be able to relax because he knows you have to carry around a tiny human being 24/7. And, on top of that, you have the morning sickness and..." he hesitated.

"The crazy hormones?" Sara asked, tilting her head back against his shoulder so she could see his sheepish expression.

"N-I wasn't going to say-"

"It's okay," Sara said, kissing his cheek. "Believe me, I know how I've been lately," she turned around so that she was facing Michael and spread her legs out on top of his. He pulled her closer to him and wrapped his arms around her back to make sure she wouldn't fall off the edge of the bed. "I'm sorry for how I've been acting lately. I know it's probably not easy to live with a hormonal pregnant woman that keeps sending you out to buy peanut butter." For the past month or so, she had been craving peanut butter on everything. It got so bad that she sent Michael into town at 2:30 in the morning to get a jar of it from a 24 hours grocery store when she decided to have a late-night snack.

Michael smiled. "Don't apologize. I love you and I love taking care of you. Besides, my job is definitely easier than yours. You have to carry a baby inside you and deal with all the crazy food it wants, and the constant kicking at night and the morning sickness and the hormones. The only thing I have to do is make sure you're happy and healthy...and that we always have an emergency jar of peanut butter."

Sara smiled and leaned forward, kissing him. "Best husband ever."

Michael smiled back. "Best wife ever." He shifted his legs so that he could get up and then grabbed Sara's hands, pulling her up too. "Come on, let's go finish painting our daughter's room."

* * *

When they went back they found Lincoln , LJ and Lincoln standing over a empty paint can and their son who was lying in a puddle of the lavender paint. Hearing Michael and Sara approaching, the three looked up, staring guiltily between the couple and the mess.

"I tried to stop him but it all happened really quickly," LJ rushed out. "We were just about to get him cleaned up."

"Yeah, and I was just about to head out to the hardware store to buy more paint," Lincoln added.

Sara felt Michael's arm that was around her waist stiffen as they all waited for her reaction. She looked between her brother-in-law and her nephew, watching the fear in their eyes increase with every passing second and then she looked at her son, who was trying to stand up but kept slipping in the wet paint. She lasted for about ten seconds before she burst out laughing.

Lincoln and LJ looked shocked for a moment, completely at a loss for words, which just made Sara laugh even harder. Michael was a little quicker to understand and he began laughing too.

"I'm sorry," Sara said, between laughter, "but your faces."

Lincoln and LJ started laughing too, haltingly at first, but then they relaxed.

After a minute, when Sara had composed herself, she wrapped her arm around her husband's. "Michael and I will get the paint and pick up some dinner. Lincoln, you can give Mikey a bath and get him into some clean clothes. LJ, you can work on cleaning up this paint."

"I'm on it." LJ said, starting immediately. Lincoln bent down and picked up the 4-year-old, getting purple paint all over his shirt. "Come on, buddy. Let's clean you up."

Mikey squirmed out of his uncle's arms and ran straight to his father, rubbing his paint-splattered hands all over Michael's pants.

"Hey, hey, hey" Michael said, reaching for his son who was shrieking in laughter.

"Now you're purple too, daddy!" the little boy yelled gleefully. Sara giggled, pulling out her phone to take a picture of their little boy.

Michael picked up his son and went straight for the paint puddle, dropping his giggling son back in. He then lifted him back up and proceeded to chase his wife around, covering her in the purple paint too. Sara screamed, trying to get away but it was a lot harder to maneuver her way around with a belly that made her more than double in size.

LJ ran for his Uncle Mike, taking his cousin and splattering some paint onto Michael's cheeks. In defense, Michael scooped some paint into his palms and threw it at LJ, who ducked just in time, making the paint splatter all over Lincoln's shirt.

"Oh, it's on," Lincoln shouted, scooping handfuls of the paint and throwing it everywhere - at Michael (senior and junior), Sara, LJ, at the walls...

"Why buy more paint when we could just use this?" Lincoln said, another handful splashing against the wall, a few flecks falling onto Sara's face as she laughed.

The paint war continued on for a while. They even broke into teams - Scofields vs. Burrows'. The Scofield's had been winning until Michael turned around and wiped paint onto Sara's nose, starting a civil war. Eventually, in the middle of all the yelling and laughing, someone called truce and they all proceeded to take turns washing up, getting rid of as much paint as they could. They ordered pizza for dinner and spent the rest of the evening sitting around, talking, laughing, and eating, planning out what else they needed to do before the newest edition of the Scofield family was born.

 **Hope everyone enjoyed the story! A couple of things I wanted to say...**

 **1) Any baby name ideas for Michael and Sara's daughter? :)**

 **2) To the guest who asked if I would consider writing a multi-chapter fic about Misa, first of all thank you for your kind words! It's always nice to hear positive feedback on my stories :) And, to answer your question, I definitely would like to write a multi-chapter fic, I'm honestly just waiting to come up with an idea I really like and want to write about. (Hopefully that idea will come sooner rather than later).**

 **I look forward to hearing any feedback. Sorry in advance for any mistakes, not a lot of time to proofread these days.  
**


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